The Detroit Lions, predictably, avoided major moves in the first wave of free agency, opting for bargain signings rather than a big swing.
Detroit signed 12 players to affordable one-year deals, with center Cade Mays the only free agent to land a multi-year contract.
Appearing on Lions Collective, general manager Brad Holmes gave a detailed explanation for the team's frustratingly quiet approach to free agency.
"When we're looking at the constraints we had financially entering into (free agency), it's like, OK, we're not going to be able to do a lot of multi-year deals," Holmes said.
"For what we're trying to do with these extensions that we have upcoming, the implications that it would have on our cap would be, I don't want to call it crippling, but it would have been hard to overcome. We were kind of limited in how many multi-year deals that we actually could get."
Brad Holmes' explanation for Lions' quiet free agency only adds to the frustration
Holmes makes some fair points. The Lions have been victims of their own success in recent years, having to hand out massive extensions to their star players, a direct result of hitting home run after home run in the NFL Draft.
More extensions await this summer, with running back Jahmyr Gibbs expected to reset the running back market.
But it still doesn't help ease Lions fans' understandable frustrations.
Holmes built a team that reached the doorstep of the Super Bowl one year and then secured the NFC's top seed the next. They were the definition of a team that's one or two pieces away from winning it all, yet Holmes has failed to take that final step.
The Los Angeles Rams are willing to dare. To gamble. This offseason, they traded away another first-round pick to acquire cornerback Trent McDuffie before spending $51 million to sign Jaylen Watson, his cornerback tag-team partner with the Kansas City Chiefs. The Rams identified a need at cornerback and went all-in to fix it.
Lions fans wish Holmes would be willing to take a similar risk. The defense has been crying out for another edge-rusher for well over a year. Aidan Hutchinson can't do it alone.
There are always salary-cap levers available to pull to create space for a big move. Sure, it comes with long-term risks, but that's the kind of all-in roll of the dice worth taking when you're so close to a championship.
The Lions have nine picks in next month's draft and their offseason work is far from over, but it once again felt like they stood still. Holmes' explanation is understandable, but it won't ease frustrations among the fanbase.